Jersey City advances Tri-State’s largest mixed-income housing development

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Mayor Steven Fulop, members of the City Council, and representatives from the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency gathered on Tuesday to announce moving forward with development on the city’s west side, along the Hackensack River.

Construction of the first phase of Bayfront, the largest mixed-income development site in the region, will begin in the fall and bring up to 8,000 residential units. The project includes 100 acres of remediated brownfields and is controlled by the city.

Phase one, which will be approved next week, consists of 16-acres of the total 100-acre property that the city acquired, and pursuant to the announced agreement, two selected developers will pay a total of $26 million to develop this first phase of Bayfront.

Jersey City acquired the 100-acre Bayfront property from Honeywell Corp. in 2016 for $100 million. At the time, the city stated that the acquisition would help to meet the goal of increasing onsite affordable housing requirements from 5 percent, which was previously stipulated in the redevelopment plan, to a new goal of 35 percent, with the city controlling the property.

At the next Jersey City Redevelopment Agency meeting, the city will formally designate two nationally recognized affordable housing developers: Bayfront Development Partners LLC – a joint venture of Pennrose LLC and Omni America LLC – and BRP Development Group, to implement phase one the Bayfront Redevelopment Plan, pursuant to their competitive request for proposal responses to the city.

“I hope with this project Jersey City can demonstrate to the country what type of development is possible when we don’t let the typical boundaries limit us. We made a $100 million bet on affordable housing, and it looks like this will pay off huge, both economically for current taxpayers and future residents,” Fulop said in a prepared statement.

Phase one consists of the development of four parcels within the area upon which a total of 1,092 units will be built in multifamily residential buildings—35 percent of which is affordable and workforce housing.

BRP will build 552 units on its two lots, totaling 193 affordable units, and Pennrose/Omni is responsible for 540 units, 189 of which will be affordable housing. The units will truly be a mixed community of affordable units. Within the Pennrose/Omni development site, all of the units will be up to 60 percent average median income (AMI), while the BRP development site will be a blend of 28 units at 30 percent AMI, 28 units at 40 percent, 28 units at 50 percent, 28 units at 60 percent, 28 units at 80 percent and 53 units at 120 percent.

The Bayfront Redevelopment Plan will transform the once contaminated site along the Hackensack Riverfront into the centerpiece of the West Side revitalization. The plan is designed to maximize the economic benefits to Jersey City and its taxpayers while prioritizing affordable housing, localized hiring opportunities during and after construction, and sustainable green development.